The present invention relates generally to agricultural machinery and, more particularly, to improvements to combine harvesters for crops.
The invention relates to a combine harvester having a cutterbar and a sloping conveyor or elevator which transports the cut material to a tangential or axial threshing mechanism mounted behind the sloping conveyor. The threshing mechanism is adjoined in the direction of flow of material by at least one separating device which operates by the axial flow method and which includes a separating rotor which can be rotatably driven. The separating rotor is equipped circumferentially with spirally or helically extending conveying elements and is surrounded by a housing which includes an upper cover and a lower separating cage. The conveying elements are formed from impact teeth which continue the spiral or helix and between which are located radial slots which, if required, cooperate with stationary chopper blades associated with a recess of the housing.
From German Patent Publications 19600390 and 19640047 are known combine harvesters having a separating rotor in the region of the chopper device and which is surrounded by a plurality of cutting channel-forming supporting rings with impact teeth which are welded or bolted to the rotor casing. A sleeve-like element which covers the region of the chopper device is fitted and fixed on the rotor. Cutting channels are formed in and all around the outer wall of the sleeve-like element. Impact teeth are affixed to or formed integrally with the resulting channel webs. A proposed alternative is to fit a sleeve-like component as a connecting unit between two parts of the rotor casing. The sleeve-like parts can also be constructed as a casting, which integrally forms the cutting channels and the impact teeth. Initial assembly and required service work, such as replacing wearing parts, of these above-described separating rotors for chopping crop material is possible only with considerable time and hence cost-intensive work which requires the whole separating rotor having to be detached from its end bearings.
It is an object of the invention to overcome one or more of the above described difficulties. Another object is to design a combine harvester of the kind described whose components can be exchanged in a very short time, particularly when repair work is necessary, and whose components constitute, if possible, a small circumference of the whole chopper device. Another object of the invention is to provide a solution to simplify the manufacture of the type of combine harvester described herein.